NEW MARKET — After only tallying three hits and being shut out in their previous game against top-ranked Lebanon, the Crawfordsville Athenian baseball team wanted to get back on the right track. They were able to do that in big way on Tuesday night as they made the short drive to take on county rival Southmont in a double-header.
Led by a grand slam from Henry Taylor, the first home run of the year for Crawfordsville, the Athenians cruised to a 21-5 win in game one, and followed it up with a 15-0 shutout win in game two. The Athenians tallied 25 total hits in the two games. Taylor tallied nine RBI between both games to lead the charge.
“We wanted to be aggressive at the plate and making sure we put ourselves in good positions to put the ball in play,” first year coach Brett Motz said. “It was a good night to get some of our guys who were struggling at the plate a little bit to bust out. There was a lot of good things to take away on both offensively and our pitchers did a great job on the mound.”
The aggressive style and mindset paid dividends from the get go. Crawfordsville (9-4 5-2 SAC) was able to steal bases at will and put pressure on the Mounties (1-12 0-7 SAC) who committed six total errors in the two games. Even on a passed ball or wild pitch, Crawfordsville runners always had their heads up and were able to take full advantage.
“We have to take advantage of those opportunities,” Motz said. “Every chance you get to get closer to scoring you have to learn to take those chances. You have to understand how to do it and hopefully that’s something we can continue to take advantage of the rest of the season.”
For Southmont the little things such as base running mistakes continue to be an issue. Numerous times throughout both games when the Mounties looked as if a rally was about to happen, a base runner would get thrown out at third base or get tagged out in a rundown.
“We made mistakes in both first innings and that compiled with the walks we allowed, that puts a lot of pressure on ourselves,” Coach Brad Wininger said. “The defense continues to put pressure on our pitchers and vice versa. We work on that everyday to get better and that’s been our M-O so far this season and what’s hurt us the most.”
Chayce Howell tallied three hits in total for Southmont. Caden Jones ended with a pair of RBI’s. Nick Scott and Carson McKinney also drove in one each.
Crawfordsville is back in action on Friday at home against Benton Central while Southmont will host Danville next Tuesday.
